The three shortlisted finalists presented their work in the main auditorium of City Hall before the eventual winner, Jonathan Auerbach was announced to those assembled. Jonathan's winning article is entitled 'Estimating the population of rats in New York City' and will published in the upcoming October edition of Significance magazine.
Jonathan is a PhD student in the Statistics Department at Columbia University. Previously, he was a research associate at the Center for Urban Research in the City University of New York. His interests include urban politics, public policy, open data and statistical methodology.
The two runners-up were Nathan Cunningham and Katie Saunders. Nathan's article was entitled 'Does Christmas really come earlier every year?' Nathan is a 24-year-old data analyst from Ireland. He has a degree in economics and finance, and a master's degree in statistics, both from University College Dublin. Since graduating, he has worked with the Irish Economics & Social Research Institute and the Irish Healthcare Pricing Office, where he has focused on measuring hospital performance in terms of patient outcomes and costs.
Katie's article was entitled 'Do NHS records reflect patient ethnicity?'. Katie is a research associate statistician in the Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research. She works across a range of projects, looking at patient experience survey data, and in oncology health services research. Her PhD is in genetic epidemiology, and she trained as a doctor in Leeds and London.
Thank you to all those who entered the competition this year, and stay tuned for details of next year's contest.
